stoneshop just got me this.



Yes, it's a USB drive. A full 8 gb of cuteness. It looks like Tigger, and like Tigger, it has a hole in its left ear.
Beware of geeks bearing gifts, you'll end up giving them your heart in return before you know it.

And so does having to say goodbye to friends and to an awesome Convention.

Getting back home, on the other hand, is likely to be very nice indeed.

Another nice thing: free WiFi.

Moem, hailing from gate 4 at HongKong International Airport, thanks to the small but mighty Eee-quivalent

This is a test entry, made using a puny little old subnotebook called a Libretto 100 ct, which I intend to take to NZ. It seems to be working well but the keyboard is so small that I'll need to clip my nails really short.
I had my mind set on using a HP Jornada which is even smaller, but it runs on Windows CE, and not much else does.

The Libretto is running Win'98 and feels quite solid and stable. It has my own favourite browser and all my e-mail. It has its quirks though... see that button right of the screen?
That's the mouse and the mouse buttons are on the back of the screen. Yeah, takes some getting used to. Quite cleverly done, though, back in 1998.

I used to have Adobe Acrobat Reader on my laptop, to open and view PDF files with. But lately the program is getting rather bloated, with not much visible reason. After all, it still does the same things, with some new bells and whistles (and honestly I couldn't name one of those new featues to save my life).
The download for the latest version, version 9, was a whopping 41.1 MB. Wow, does it really need to be so big?
So I checked out older, and much smaller, versions on Oldversion.com. They had an interesting little list:   

    * Acrobat Reader 2 (1.4 MB)
    * Acrobat Reader 3 (3.9 MB)
    * Acrobat Reader 4 (5.2 MB)
    * Acrobat Reader 4.05 (5.5 MB)
    * Acrobat Reader 5.0 (8.4 MB)
    * Acrobat Reader 5.0.5 (8.6 MB)
    * Acrobat Reader 5.1 (13.0 MB)
    * Acrobat Reader 6.0 (15.9 MB)
    * Acrobat Reader 6.01 (16.3 MB)
    * Acrobat Reader 7.05 (31.5 MB)
    * Acrobat Reader 7.07 (20.2 MB)
    * Acrobat Reader 7.08 (20.3 MB)
    * Acrobat Reader 7.0.9 (20.2 MB)
    * Acrobat Reader 8.11 (22.3 MB)

Oops! Looks like you've really let yourself go there, darling!

But wait. Surely there are other options. Of course, I still want to be able to read, save and print PDFs, but I really don't need much more.
So I tried Foxit reader. It's like Acrobat on Slimfast!
A download size of 3,65 MB, it installs easily, and it starts up much faster. I haven't been able to find any features missing yet.
Yep, looks like this one is on my harddisk to stay.
But don't take my word for it, read some reviews if you're interested.

I'm testing a client for posting to LiveJournal, because I want to find out if it can simultaneously post to LJ and Scribbld. This is a test, feel free to ignore.

Edited to add: it can! It just did. How very convenient!
In case anyone wants to try it, it's called Semagic and I found it here.

I'm testing a client for posting to LiveJournal, because I want to find out if it can simultaneously post to LJ and Scribbld. This is a test, feel free to ignore.

Edited to add: it can! It just did. How very convenient!
In case anyone wants to try it, it's called Semagic and I found it here.

They can't be serious about this... or can they?
Lenovo (that's pronounced IBM) has announced a new dual screen laptop. It's going to be a total brick at about 5 kilos. But the cool factor is at least equally large, I must say. And look, they've kept the good old trackpoint!


Click the pic to read about it on the Computerworld.com site.

As some of you know, I'll be travelling to New-Zealand in April, to be at the BookCrossing Convention 2009. Of course, it's silly and a waste to go to NZ for just a weekend, so I'll be going earlier so I can rent a motorbike there (yay!) and do some exploring. All very nice indeed.

I've been thinking about what to bring. Going without any kind of computer at all doesn't sound nice to me. I'm an internet junkie after all. I might want to e-mail or blog every now and then. But bringing my laptop... well, if it's packed well enough to be shock proof (as it needs to be while on the bike) it takes up a lot of space. Almost an entire pannier. Also, it's another thing to worry about; it could get stolen or damaged. And I wouldn't want to have it for just the Convention weekend, and leave it somewhere during the bike trip.

So I'd need something smaller if I wanted to bring anything at all. Okay, the new Eeepcs look like they could do the job; but I haven't got one and frankly, they're too close to my laptop and there would be functional overlap. They're... too much of a computer I guess.

So I thought about the Africa trip. I had a nice little e-mail device then: a HP 320 LX palmtop. It's still in working order, and it's a neat litle machine. No colour screen, but it's OK for text; runs on two penlight batteries, which is utterly practical.
Only trouble is, it was outdated when I got it almost ten years ago, and it's pretty much obsolete now. It's got a PCMCIA modem that allows it to dial in; but in NZ, where would it dial in to? It might be possible to get a normal network card or a WiFi card for it, but is it really worth the trouble?

However, the 320 has a sibling: the Jornada 720. It was almost available when I made the Africa trip (it came out a few months later), but would have been way too expensive for me to consider. Now I can buy one used, with all the accessories I'll need (and even some that I don't ) for a price below 100 euros.
It's still small: about the size of a book. it's still got that familiair rugged clam shell exterior. And it can still dial in (built-in modem, no less). But it's got a nice colour screen, more storage space (and it still takes CF cards like my old 320 does, which makes it really easy to get software on to it), a faster processor and new connectivity options.
And we're picking it up this evening. I can't wait.( Go on, you know you want to see them. )

[Error: unknown template 'qotd']Wherever I lay my @.

Sorry, someone had to say it. Besides, it's sort of true. I mainly live inside my Thinkpad.
I can live inside an X-series model because I'm rather 'fun sized' myself.